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SPEECH 

OF 

WASHINGTON HUNT, 








































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SPEECH 


OF 

WASHINGTON HUNT, 


AT THE 


Stan Hiding in fta fnrli, 


DECEMBER 19th, 1859. 


NEW YORK: 

HALL, CLAYTON & CO., PRINTERS, 45 PINE STREET. 

1 859 . 



GIFT ' 
ESTATE OF - 
WILLIAM C. RIVES 
x APRIL, 1840 
















GOVERNOR HUNT’S SPEECH 


AT THE 



An immense meeting of the citizens of New York, seeking the restoration of 
friendly sentiments between the North and the South, assembled at the 
Academy of Music on the 19th of December, 1859. 

The Hon. Washington Hunt, attending on the invitation of the Committee, 
was introduced to the meeting by the Mayor of the City, and received with 
every mark of respect. 

He addressed the assemblage as follows: 

Mr. President and Fellow- Citizens— In obedience to 
your summons I have come from the interior of our State, 
and appear before you to-night to mingle my voice with 
yours in behalf of American Union and Nationality. A pro- 
found sense of duty brings me here to unite with you in new 
vows of fidelity to the institutions we received from Wash- 
ington and Adams, and Jefferson and Hamilton. I come to 
invoke that spirit of unity and brotherhood which carried 
our fathers through the dark and trying scenes of the Revo- 
lution, and which subsequently enabled them to perfect and 
establish the most perfect system of federal union and gov- 
ernment ever devised by the wisdom of man. Let us unite 
our efforts for the rescue of our country from impending 
dangers, and endeavor once more to inspire those sentiments 
of mutual confidence and good-will, without which, even if 
union were possible, it were hardly worth preserving. We 


4 


have reached a. crisis in our affairs which demands the sober 
reflection of every true patriot, and which allows no man to 
fold his arms in silent indifference, as an unconcerned ob- 
server of passing events. The time has come, when every 
American citizen must declare whether he intends to ‘‘keep 
step to the music of the Union,” or lend his voice to swell 
the dismal chorus of sectional discord and defiance. The 
time has come for New York to speak and proclaim, in no 
ambiguous phrase, but in words of energy which cannot be 
mistaken, that whatever others may do, she stands and will 
forever stand by that sacred compact which makes us one 
country and one people; that come what may, she will be 
found faithful to its obligations, loyal to its compromises, 
and true to its spirit, and that she will resist to the last ex- 
tremity all fratricidal efforts, under whatsoever guise or from 
whatsoever quarter they may proceed, to alienate the peo- 
ple of the two great sections of our country, or to weaken 
the ties of friendship which bind them together in one com- 
mon destiny. 

Mr. President, you have rendered a fitting and earnest 
tribute to the value of that Union, and I feel that it is un- 
necessary for me to dwell upon the inspiring theme, espe- 
cially in this presence, before an audience embracing so 
large a share of the intelligence and patriotism of the first 
commercial emporium of the American continent. Under 
the benignant sway of the Federal Constitution, our ad- 
vances in strength, prosperity, and power, and in all that 
constitutes the true greatness and felicity of nations, arc with- 
out a parallel in the annals of mankind. But seventy years 
have passed away, a period within the memory of living 
men, since the formation of our compact of union. Com- 
pare the situation of the infant Republic with our present 
national condition. How wonderful the contrast! Instead 
of the original thirteen feeble and exhausted, behold thirty- 
four powerful, prosperous States, united by the bonds of a 
common nationality. Instead of a narrow belt along the 


seaboard, we exhibit a broad continental republic, reaching 
from the Atlantic to the Pacilic, and from the St. Lawrence 
to the Gulf of Mexico. We have grown from a population 
of four millions to thirty millions of people, enjoying con- 
stitutional liberty and security under the protecting rngis of 
the national power. New agencies of intercourse have over- 
leaped the most formidable barriers, and brought the re- 
motest parts near together. The national wealth and power 
of production have increased to an extent which appears 
fabulous. The expansion of our commerce has excited the 
wonder, I had almost said the envy, of the world. Already 
have we taken our place among the foremost nations of the 
earth, and before the lapse of another century, unless the 
ties of union shall be dissevered, the United States of 
America will have become the most powerful empire on the 
globe. Our example will animate and sustain, perhaps our 
power will protect the friends of free government in other 
lands. 

Why are all these mighty interests, these inestimable 
blessings, these precious hopes to be put at hazard ? Shall 
the noblest legacy ever bestowed upon mankind be thrown 
away, and “ counted nothing worth ,' 7 because the domestic 
institutions of the States are diversified and cannot be 
moulded into uniformity — or in other words, because the 
South continues to hold the negro subordinate, and as 
they held him at the formation of the Union? When di- 
vested of the trappings of sophistry and the exaggerations of 
fanaticism, the practical question which our people must con- 
sider is — whether the North and South are to be enemies or 
friends ? What are to be the future relations between these 
two great sections ? Is it peace or war ? Shall they con- 
tinue to move onward together as brethren under a common 
flag, mutually aiding and co-operating in the administration 
of one common government, — or are they to be separated 
into distinct and hostile political systems, each to pursue its 
own destiny independent of the other ? 


6 


Union means something more than the mere phraseology 
of a political compact. It vitally includes the idea of friend 
ship and mutual kindness, to be manifested not by formal 
professions, but by unmistakable acts of kindness and re- 
spect. There can be no real or permanent union between 
States hostile in feeling and incessantly taught to regard 
each other with hatred and aversion. We have no reason 
to look for such a phenomenon, without a complete trans- 
formation of human nature and human passions. Whether 
the North and the South are to remain one country, or be 
rent asunder and formed into separate confederacies, is a 
question in comparison with which the schemes of politicians 
and the ordinary conflicts of parties sink into utter insig- 
nificance. 

I will not attempt to portray the calamities of disunion, 
the universal bankruptcy and ruin, the scenes of anarchy 
and blood, the sundering of kindred ties and cherished at- 
tachments, and that direful and interminable train of con- 
sequences, which no human wisdom can foresee. Who can 
say that in such an event, the States of the North and West 
would remain united ? or that New York and New England 
could adjust the conditions of confederated power ? or even, 
that New York and Philadelphia would consent to one com- 
mon government ? It would be far easier to excite jealous- 
ies between the parts than to reunite them, and political 
agitators would not then be wanting to sow the seeds of 
jealousy and conflict. Would not these disunited members 
soon relapse into the incoherent, discordant condition of the 
fragmentary States of South America, and become the sport 
of military ambition, to sink at last into the arms of des- 
potic power ? 

The agitators of the slavery question ought to remember, 
that African slavery was introduced in the Southern States 
long before the Revolution; that the present generation in- 
herited it from their ancestors, and are not responsible for 
its existence, and that they now have a colored population 


7 


of four millions, which they must be permitted to deal with 
according to their own views of interest and duty. The 
opinions of Washington and Jefferson are sometimes intro- 
duced to sanction the present system of slavery agitation. 
It is true that they both deplored the existence of slavery, 
and regarded it as an evil. But even then, when the slave 
population was less than one-sixth of its present number, 
they perceived that the system was too pervading and formi- 
dable for their powers, and they brought forward no defi- 
nite measures for its eradication. Least of all, did they ad- 
vise or encourage the people of the free States to form 
themselves into anti-slavery combinations to sit in judgment 
upon their sister communities, and disturb the public tran- 
quillity by a constant outpouring of sectional animosity. On 
the contrary, their last and most emphatic warnings to their 
countrymen were intended to arouse them to the danger of 
sectional jealousies and dissensions. Washington signed 
the first fugitive slave law. Jefferson purchased Louisiana, 
and both sanctioned laws admitting slave States into the 
Union. 

Let us briefly consider the difficulties that were encount- 
ered in the adjustment of our federal compact, and then con- 
template the wise statesmanship and generous patriotism by 
which they were surmounted. Then, as now, the States 
had their peculiar institutions and prejudices. They were 
widely dissimilar in climate and position, in their produc- 
tions, their social organization and domestic policy. There 
were conflicting interests and opinions which could be rec- 
onciled only by the exercise of the noble magnanimity and 
true love of country, which shone forth so conspicuous in 
that bright era of public virtue and patriotic zeal. After 
the Convention of 1787 had completed its labors, under the 
auspices of the Father of his Country, it devolved upon him, 
as President of the body, to communicate the Constitution 
to the Congress of the old Confederation. After adverting 
to the difficulties produced “by a difference among the sev- 


8 


eral States as to their situation, extent, habits, and particu- 
lar interests/*' he holds the following language: “The Con- 
stitution which we now present is the result of a spirit of 
amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which 
the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispen- 
sable. ^ Yes, Mr. President, the spirit of amity perfected 
the glorious fabric; the spirit of amity must be invoked to 
sustain and preserve it. 

One of the highest objects of the compact then made, was 
to blend conflicting interests, and to bind the States together 
by the ties of mutual benefit and affection. It was intended 
to combine their strength for the common welfare and pro- 
tection, and insure for all the blessings of free intercourse 
and commerce on a firm foundation of perpetual friendship 
and concord. It was wisely decided by the patriots of that 
day, that the negro should not stand in the way of union. 
Then, as now, it was apparent that the very diversities 
and differences to which I have adverted, increased the ne- 
cessity for a national compact which should insure domestic 
tranquillity, and unite the efforts of the States and the peo- 
ple for the attainment of those common objects which re- 
quire the exercise of concentrated, national power. Expe- 
rience has demonstrated that the varied forms of industry 
and production contribute to the general strength, and 
largely augment the benefits resulting from commercial 
interchange between the different sections of the country. 
The notion that the States of the North and South cannot 
coexist side by side as friends and neighbors, and act to- 
gether harmoniously in one national system, by reason of 
the dissimilarity of their domestic institutions, and that par- 
tisan warfare between them is cither necessary or justifiable 
until slavery shall have been abolished in one section or 
legalized in the other, is an absurd and mischievous fallacy, 
having no basis of fact or sound argument for its support. 
Our whole history rejects the proposition, and common 
sense refutes it; for I emphatically deny, that there is any 


9 


necessary antagonism between African slave labor in the 
tropical South and free labor in the temperate North. 

It is no more necessary now than in times past, that any 
State should surrender the control of its internal affairs, or 
that either section should abandon its own to adopt the sys- 
tem or the opinions of the other. It is the unquestionable 
right of every State to regulate its own domestic concerns, 
without intervention from other parts of the country. 

The recent invasion of Virginia by a band of conspira- 
tors, for the avowed purpose of arming the slaves and or- 
ganizing a servile insurrection, has excited emotions of 
abhorrence in every mind not incurably distempered by sec- 
tional fanaticism. Ought it to surprise us, that an attempt 
so nefarious, so diabolical, should arouse feelings of intense 
indignation among the Southern people, or that they should 
look with just solicitude for an expression of the sentiments 
of the North, in regard to this treasonable assault upon their 
peace and security? Of course, they have not failed to 
observe, that for some years past the discussion of negro 
slavery has been the leading business of a large number of 
presses, lecturers, politicians and preachers in the North, 
and that the slave States and slaveholders have been made 
the standing theme of invective and assault. The slavery 
question has been made to swallow up every other topic of 
public interest in the minds of many benevolent but misgui- 
ded persons, whose sympathies arc most powerfully and sin- 
gularly excited by those distant evils, real or imaginary, 
which lie entirely beyond their control. 

In a healthful state of public sentiment, the bloody 
scenes at Harper's Ferry, and the attempt to arm a servile 
population with thousands of murderous spears to be bathed 
in the blood of men, women, and children of our own race 
and lineage, would have produced but one universal thrill 
of horror. Yet there are men among us, whose minds are 
so diseased by sectional prejudice, that they openly express 
sympathy with John Brown and his schemes of murder and 


10 


insurrection. I regret to add, that there are presses in the 
land which, while feebly expressing a disapproval of his acts, 
yet do not so much condemn the atrocity of his intentions, 
as the inadequacy of his plans and the chimerical nature of 
the undertaking. They appear to be far more indignant 
with Virginia for executing her laws, than with him for 
violating them. Apparently forgetting that he entered a 
sister State in the garb of a peaceful settler professing 
friendly purposes; that for months his life was a fraud and 
a false pretence, intended to lull his victims into a fatal se- 
curity; that while indulging these false professions, he was 
secretly preparing to imbrue his hands in the blood of the 
innocent, and enact barbarities at which humanity shudders, 
they exhibit him to the public as a victim to what they 
strangely call the aggressive spirit of slavery. It is 
time to proclaim in the most emphatic manner, that the 
great body of our citizens have no share in these detest- 
able sentiments, but on the contrary regard them with 
alarm and horror, as subversive of law, justice, and humani- 
ty. They indignantly reprobate every attempt to endanger 
the peace and security of our Southern brethren. It is the 
sovereign right and prerogative, of Virginia to make and 
administer her own laws; the people of other States have 
no lawful concern in the matter. She gave John Brown a 
fair judicial trial, and the whole country should rejoice, not 
only that he and his confederates received the punishment 
so justly due to their crimes, but that his schemes of wide- 
spread insurrection and slaughter were so promptly crushed. 
John Brown was a citizen of our own State, and as far as 
he could, he dishonored her by his treasonable violation of 
the rights of Virginia. It is peculiarly fitting, therefore, 
that the people of New York, of all parties, should make 
their sentiments distinctly understood, and emphatically de- 
clare their abhorrence of his crime and the ungovernable 
fanaticism in which it originated and by which it has been 
too long encouraged. 


11 


We have not forgotten that New York and Virginia are 
sister States, and have plighted their mutual faith in the 
bonds of confederation and union. Who can ever forget 
that they stood side by side through the stormy scenes of 
the Revolution, and that Washington, the noblest son of 
Virginia, in the darkest hour of despondency, defended the 
soil of New York against the overwhelming force of the 
invader, and the more dangerous machinations of domestic 
treason? We might also well remember that Virginia, in 
a spirit of disinterested patriotism, not surpassed on the 
brightest pages of history, gave to the Union that vast and 
imperial domain, which now constitutes the prosperous, free 
States of the Northwest, and the richest nursery of the 
commerce and prosperity of New York. 

Cherishing these recollections of the past, well may we 
blush for the decay of national spirit, when we hear the 
needless insults so frequently aimed at that Commonwealth, 
for remaining in the social and domestic condition transmit- 
ted to her by the generations which have passed away. 
Survey our past history, and tell me what Virginia has done 
to us to justify these ebullitions of resentment. Has she 
ever invaded our territory with spears, or interfered with 
our internal concerns, or sought to force her institutions 
upon us ? 

The free States of the North entered into the federal com- 
pact with the slave States of the South, with their eyes open. 
We knew that they held a large African population in do- 
mestic servitude. Yet we chose to unite with them inform- 
ing a common government for specified, national objects. 
After contracting these federal relations and adopting the 
Constitution as the charter of perpetual amity, is it a friendly 
proceeding, is it consistent with honor and good faith, to 
turn upon them and arraign them in language of condemna- 
tion and insult, on the question of negro slavery, which be- 
longs wholly to them, and over which we have neither juris- 
diction nor control ? To me it seems an unwise and ungen- 


12 


erous interference with a subject which is none of ours. It 
is a violation of the comity of States, which can have no 
useful effect whatever. It aggravates the evils which it 
would remedy, and produces increased severity by exciting 
feelings of irritation and insecurity among the only people 
who have power over the condition of the slave. 

Mr. President, in all the sectional collisions which have 
disturbed the country, my voice has been on the side of 
moderation. I have never sympathized with factious agi- 
tators in the North, nor with disunionists in the South. 
Always maintaining the just rights of my own section, I 
have been equally ready to respect the rights and the feel- 
ings of the other. When differences have arisen, from 
whatever cause, I have contended for their adjustment in a 
friendly spirit, on principles consistent with the rights and 
the honor of both sections. 

It is not my purpose now to review past controversies, 
nor to discuss their origin or their merits. It would serve 
no useful purpose. We have all expressed our opinions, 
and acted an honest part, according to our own sense of 
patriotic duty. Instead of reviving the disputes which have 
divided the North and the South, and interrupted harmo- 
nious relations, it is much wiser to consider how they may 
be terminated and banished from our national councils. So 
far as there was anything practical in the sectional contests 
which have convulsed the country, they are ended already, 
and belong to the domain of history. The crisis demands 
that we should exercise a spirit of patriotic conciliation. 
It is time that this angry warfare of sections should cease, 
and that the voice of discord should be rebuked and hushed 
forever. The present condition of the country calls em- 
phatically for moderation. 

In national concerns, no less than the subordinate rela- 
tions of men, moderation is the highest wisdom. By reject- 
ing its counsels and yielding to the fury of excited passions, 
most of the free republics, ancient and modern, after a brief 



13 


career of prosperity, perished from the earth. The voice 
of history warns us that the rivalries, jealousies and con- 
flicts of confederated States, have always resulted in the 
destruction of free government. If my feeble voice could 
be heard throughout the land, I would plead for modera- 
tion, both in the North and in the South. I would earn- 
estly appeal to the people of the Southern States, in the 
present moment of exasperation, to avoid all extreme and 
unconstitutional measures, and to reject the counsels of any 
who would hurry them forward into the vortex of treason 
and disunion. Let them be assured that there is no occa- 
sion for this fearful and fatal alternative. They may still 
rely on the justice and fidelity and friendship of the great 
body of their countrymen in the free States. A vast major- 
ity of the people of the North, of all parties, are still loyal 
to the Union and the Constitution, and so far from intend- 
ing they will resist every effort to invade the institutions 
and the rights of the slaveholding States. The old feeling 
of national brotherhood and affection will revive and assert 
its resistless power, even in the breasts of thousands who 
have been momentarily misled by the impulses of sectional 
feeling and excited passions. Our fellow-citizens in the 
South ought certainly to remember, that whole communities 
cannot justly be held responsible for the ravings of individ- 
ual fanatics, and the wild schemes of sectional agitators and 
conspirators. 

At the same time, let us appeal to the men of the North 
to act a conservative and patriotic part. Will they not 
arise in their might, and put an end to this detestable and 
dangerous warfare between the two great sections of the 
American Union ? Every patriot heart must desire the res- 
toration of peace and the revival of mutual confidence and 
kindness. I contend that negro slavery ought no more now 
than in 1787, to stand in the way of national unity and con- 
cord. As that question was not permitted to defeat the 
formation of the Union, we should not allow it to mar the 


14 


enjoyment of its blessings. We all know that slavery is 
regarded with different sentiments in the free States and 
the slave States. It was so from the beginning; but the 
Constitution has wisely left each State to regulate the sub- 
ject according to its own will and pleasure. If the people 
will bear in mind this fundamental truth, and govern them- 
selves accordingly, sectional controversy and excitement 
must soon disappear. The constant discussion and agita- 
tion of the slavery question in the free States, has become 
an intolerable nuisance. A portion of the Northern press 
seem to consider it the only subject of human interest. 
They will not allow us to lose sight of it for a day. In lit- 
! eraturc, in politics, in religion, they insist that it is the great 
moral pivot on which everything must turn. A stranger in 
the land, ignorant of our history, would infer that for the 
first time we are about to decide whether slavery shall be 
permitted in this country or not. Of course he would be 
greatly surprised to learn that New York, New England, 
and all the free States, abolished slavery many years ago, 
and that no man has yet proposed to restore it. We deci- 
ded that it is not good for us, and we will not have it, thus 
fulfilling our duty, and exhausting our jurisdiction over the 
subject. That should be the end of the matter, so far at 
least as we are concerned. For what legitimate purpose, 
then, is an anti-slavery excitement to be kept alive in the free 
States? Most of the political agitators of the subject 
admit, that they have no power or disposition to interfere 
with slavery in the States where it exists, and many of 
them even repel the idea that they seek in any way to 
benefit the colored population. But nevertheless they wage 
an interminable war of words, proposing nothing for the 
benefit either of master or slave, but leaving the institution 
in full vigor, as a perpetual target for political adventurers. 

But it is urged, that their real object is to prevent the ex- 
tension of slavery into free territory. That was once a 
pending practical question. It is so no longer. Kansas is 


15 


free, as many of us maintained that it must be, from causes 
too powerful to be controlled by the efforts of politicians 
or propagandists. All the territory affected by the repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise is free, and must forever remain 
so. The battle is fought and won, and the troops should 
be disbanded. There is no territory belonging to the Union 
in which slavery can be profitably established. Every 
reflecting man in the South as well as the North secs and 
admits the fact. 

We may be told, that there are slaves in New Mexico, 
and that the Territorial Legislature has made it legal. But 
the notion that slavery can be planted there as a permanent 
system, is too chimerical for serious discussion. It is no 
more probable than the introduction of the cotton culture 
into Maine or Nova Scotia. What is New Mexico? It is 
a remote and inaccessible region of mountain ranges and 
desert plains, vividly and accurately described as “a howl- 
ing desolation.” It is said that a few unhappy army officers 
have taken slaves into that forlorn wilderness, as domestic 
servants to cook their rations. This may be so, but it is 
well known that there is no agriculture there upon which 
slave labor could subsist. No Southern planter could be 
induced to migrate there. The whole American continent 
cannot afford to be convulsed from year to year, merely to 
prevent a danger so trifling and so remote. As a matter of 
fact, the territories have ceased to be the object of sectional 
contest. Why, then, prolong the strife on a mere abstraction 
after the controversy has been decided? The North already 
holds a large preponderance of strength. She can afford to 
be just and magnanimous. Texas was the last slave State 
admitted into the Union. Since that event, the whole Pa- 
cific coast has been added to the domain of free territory; 
four free States have been admitted, and Kansas is forth- 
coming. While the public car is wearied with incessant 
railings on the extension, and the aggressions of slavery, 
these actual results show that in fact, there has been no ex- 


16 


tension whatever. Mr. President, the age of the Crusades 
is past, and the country is entitled to repose. The time has 
come (if it is ever to come) for terminating these unhappy 
and needless sectional dissensions. There are great national 
interests, in which all the States have a common concern, 
and which the Federal Union was intended to foster and 
protect. How much more vital and important are those 
common objects, belonging to all, and necessary for all, than 
the single point of diversity which has been too long the 
absorbing source of angry irritation ! It should be the 
effort of every sincere patriot to recall the public mind from 
these mischievous disputes to the national concerns which 
affect the welfare of the whole country, and to those senti- 
ments of mutual regard which prevailed in the better days of 
the Republic. The interruption of friendly feelings between 
the States of the North and the South is of itself, a great 
and incalculable evil. It withers and blights the choicest 
benefits which the Union was intended to secure. It embit- 
ters our national councils, obstructs all useful legislation, 
arrests commercial intercourse, and destroys that feeling of 
confidence and security which is one of the highest objects 
of civil society. Our divisions create well-founded alarm 
for the stability of our republican institutions, and make us 
a by-word and reproach among the nations. It is a spectacle 
from which every patriotic heart must recoil with mortifi- 
cation and dismay. It inspires the despots of the earth with 
fresh hopes, and everywhere chills the aspirations of the 
friends of constitutional liberty. I trust that good men 
throughout the land will unite in the work of peace and 
conciliation, and proclaim their unalterable purpose to re- 
sist all further efforts to combine section against section in 
political strife. It was not intended by the founders of our 
government, that one portion of the country should rule or 
subjugate the other. Far different, more noble and exalted 
were their aims. They sought to frame a constitutional sys- 
tem which should unite the people of all the States into one 


17 


family of freemen, to participate harmoniously in the re- 
sponsibilities of power, to share equally in its blessings, and 
to unite their efforts to uphold the principles of civil and 
religious liberty. Such was the government which our 
fathers made, and may it be our happy destiny to preserve 
it as it came from their hands. 

There are those who maintain, that the Union possesses a 
strength superior to human vicissitude, and that its stabili- 
ty cannot be endangered by any political contingency. 
They arc disposed to treat with levity and poor attempts at 
ridicule, all expressions of apprehension and solicitude. 
They profess to rely on the strength of mountain chains and 
navigable waters to hold the parts together. I do not 
under-estimate the power of material interests and commer- 
cial tics as a bond of political connection, but these alone , 
arc not sufficient. The excited passions, the determined 
will of States and communities, are not to be controlled by 
geographical or commercial channels of intercourse. Pop- 
ular feeling, when deeply aroused, disdains the barriers of 
physical nature. Neither rivers, nor seas, nor mountain 
ranges, nor laws of trade or financial interests affecting the 
public prosperity, have proved sufficient to save republics 
from dismemberment and destruction. The voluntary af- 
fection and loyalty of the people is the only sure basis for 
a free government. A love of the Union must be cherished 
in the hearts of the whole American people. We must 
continue to regard it as the greatest political blessing ever 
conferred upon mankind. Let* us this night send forth a 
declaration, which shall assure our brethren in the South 
that the people of the North are ready to put away strife, 
and lay fresh offerings upon the altar of our common coun- 
try. I see and feel that the heart of this metropolis glows 
with patriotic fervor. Its generous pulsations will be felt 
to the remotest extremities of our vast, continental Republic. 
Be it proclaimed and understood from this time forth, that 
New York will never falter in her loyalty to the Union and 


18 


the Constitution; that she still cherishes a proud recollec- 
tion of the united efforts and common sacrifices by which 
our national independence was secured, and that she will 
never cease to foster those sentiments of national brother- 
hood and affection, which animated the fathers of our coun- 
try, and which bind us together by the most sacred and 
indissoluble ties. 

In the progress of human events, it has been reserved to 
the people of this country to decide, by their conduct and 
example, whether societies of men are capable or not of 
maintaining a system of free representative government, 
and whether States, differing in climate and institutions, 
can be permanently united under a common confederation. 
A more sacred charge was never committed to any nation. 
The warnings of history should not be lost upon the free- 
men of America. Once more I would invoke them all, in 
the North and South, the East and the West, to be faithful 
to the mighty interests intrusted to their hands. May they 
cultivate that broad and generous patriotism, which embra- 
ces the whole country in its affections. May they ever look 
with patriotic disdain on the poor partisan arts which, for 
selfish ends, would undermine the glorious fabric of our 
united nationality, but with clear heads and honest hearts 
ever resist the ruthless and sacrilegious efforts to rend 
asunder those grand communities, which the great Archi- 
tect of nations has so graciously joined together. 


From the JY. Y. Express , December 22. 

The Tribune and Ex-Governor Hunt. — Mr. Greeley publishes a letter to 
Governor Hunt, insisting that his votes iu Congress in favor of the Wilmot 
Proviso were inconsistent with his present desire that there may be an end of 
angry, sectional agitation. It is true that Gov. Hunt voted in common with all 
the Northern Whigs against the annexation of Texas, and in favor of exclud- 
ing slavery from the territory acquired from Mexico. It was then a pending 
question, and it was believed that slavery would naturally go into a large por- 


19 


tion of the territory unless prohibited; but California soon came in free, and 
the whole question was settled by the compromise of 1850. No one condemned 
more strongly than Gov. Hunt the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. But 
Kansas is free, and slavery gained no extension of its limits. In speaking of 
“ factious agitators,” he referred only to those who insist on prolonging sec- 
tional strife after the battle is over. There is no longer any just pretext for 
keeping up a Northern party on the slavery question. The old Whigs never 
intended a perpetual conflict between the North and the South. They desired 
to put an end to these controversies as speedily as possible; and then, as now, 
Governor Hunt was an advocate of moderation. 































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